Occasionally as a NYC metro area resident, you feel the need to vacate. Working in or living in the city is tough! There’s a lot going on at any given moment, and you need to be a part of it. Or, at least feel like you’re part of it. Afterall, if you don’t take advantage of the culture, hustle and interesting things happening 24 hours a day in NYC, why not just live in the ‘burbs or some midwestern town?
We who do hustle and work ourselves to death to afford our tiny apartments and large bar tabs often relish the chance to get the hell out of the city when the opportunity presents itself.
This week, I’m in North Carolina. I haven’t spent much time in the south since I moved away around 20 and really never looked back. There’s a good reason for that…
There is NOTHING to do outside of large port cities. I mean sure, you can relax, but who’s good at doing that? I need noise! I need activity and restaurants open until 4 am ( just in case i need sweetbreads in the middle of the night – blueribbonrestaurants.com ). Most of all, I just want to know these things are available to me when I want to take advantage of them. Listen, I like to go home to my nice quiet street in Jersey City after a long day, put my feet up and drink a glass of wine while reading or watching mindless tv. Relaxing is great. But when there isn’t another option, BORING. I don’t want to read, nap or relax anymore, I want to walk my dog through throngs of people, get coffee from my favorite coffee shop that shoots coffee beans through a pneumatic tube and presses them instantly for the freshest espresso this side of Guatemala (roastingplant.com). I want to be overwhelmed with choices for lunch/dinner/snacks and I want it all deliverable.
It’s been great cooking and laying down, but I realise with time away, I love NYC. The over-indulgence, the noise, the rediculousness of it all makes me happy.

I went to the Andrew W.K. show at Irving Plaza (Fillmore East or whatever) last night. It was a load of inspirational fist pumping fun. If you aren’t familiar with AWK then let me tell you about him, and what he means to me. When I was a wee lad back in college I heard his music for the first time. My hippy ideals of love and good feelings were thriving, but I was missing that fast danceable heavy metal music that every boy needs. Then I heard his songs “Party Hard” and “I love New York City” and I knew I had found the way.

It’s been 5 years since AWK has played a show with a full band. He has been doing some motivational speaking and playing some solo shows, mostly at his own club Santos Party House. He brought his original touring band back for one night in New York City, the place he calls home. He poured out his love for NYC with some rather sappy words that had some people a little misty. Mostly though, he played his crazy amazing music that had the entire crowd partying hard. A classic circle pit was formed as people picked each other up off of the floor instead of purposely kicking them down. New York City wanted fun and AWK gave it full force!

As a new puppy owner, I often find myself wandering the lower east side and trying to understand things from my puppy’s point of view.

Sometimes I overthink for him, and sometimes I am completely baffled when I choose the human perspective. so many sights, smells, people, noises, EVERYTHING, going on all at once. Often its overwhelming for me, so I can’t imagine from BLT’s p.o.v how shocking it is. Being the human of a good looking dog I do meet an odd cross-section of people. Everyone from grandparents, dog walkers, other dog lovers, kids, and even postal employees want to stop and pet my dog. I’m cool with this. I mean, he is REALLY cute!
I do think about how being a dog owner affects other people in new york. Are people on the train annoyed that I have a puppy in my lap? Some of them certainly appear to be. As a resident of Jersey City who works in Manhattan, I take the PATH and the MTA. Surprisingly most people on the MTA are more into the dog. Are they less sensitive? Is it a better group? On the PATH I feel like everyone is unhappy and dreading the ride to work. I love my job, and I love people watching so, the morning ( well really late morning ) ride into the city is fun for me. Bacon seems to enjoy it, he snuggles into his messenger bag and falls asleep almost instantly. If it’s nice and I have time, I walk from 9th st & 6th ave to Allen St & Delancey. If the weather is crap or I’m running late, I hop on the F train and hope it’s running somewhat normally. People on the F are dare I say, enchanted with the dog. He’s very sweet and quiet and chill so most people are interested. However we trek from west to east village, BLT is amicable. Once we get to work, he curls up on his little bed and waits until people show up so he can greet and cuddle with anyone who wishes to enjoy a puppy for half and hour or more.
After my day is over, we trek back to the train, repeat the morning’s activities and head home. At the end of the night people are generally in a better mood. I’m usually exhausted and wishing my dog didn’t weigh 25lbs so holding him on my sore-from-the-day’s-work back didn’t hurt exponentially more. Sometimes a kind person will offer me a seat. Depending on my day, I might take them up on it.
With doggy daycare, kind strangers willing to offer a scratch, numerous dog parks and a plethora of food bits and other dog butts to enjoy, the life of a dog in Manhattan is pretty damn good. I hope I get reincarnated as a dog. Any breed or mutt will do. But I do hope it’s a NYC metro-area dog, they seem to have it the best.

John Roleke, Queens blogger, needs your help. For all you Queens-ites, vote on the best and worst in several categories — including politics, development, neighborhoods, restaurants, sports, potholes
and other ones he wants you to come up with!
This is your chance to express your opinion!

Is LaGuardia one of the worst of Queens? photo by JeremyGoldstein/Wikimedia Commons

If you go to NYTimes.com you get this full page banner ad for about 10 seconds before you go on to the actual home page. I use firefox with Adblock Plus (god bless the inventors behind this) and started noticing that I would get a blank page and would come to the main page only if I refreshed the page.

On checking in Chrome I get the above screenshot.

Now I would expect this overtly intrusive advertising from the likes of the TOI, but not he NYTimes.

So dear editors and publishers of NYTimes, in case you are reading this, please take this mess away. Give us our real NYTimes back.

I must apologize for being absent these past couple of days — I came in here to write, and then I neglected to. It’s been a busy week: on Monday my roommate’s girlfriend, who is suffering from advanced terminal cancer (I don’t know all the details on what kind,) and who is current living with us, disappeared in Brooklyn on her way home. Six hours later she turned up, after we’d mustered the support of everyone in our circle of friends look for her. She had fainted on a doorstoop and five hours later a well-meaning soul woke her and called a cab for her to get home.

All sorts of thoughts can rush through your head during this type of situation. At one point we all were certain she was dead, and it really came down to that. She was either dead or alive, and the only thing keeping her from being dead was the kindness of the people, and we just hoped the right person was there for her.

We’d called all the hospitals, we were considering filing a missing persons’ report — but we figured the cops would have as good a chance as we did at finding her, or they wouldn’t give a damn where she was; just file that paper and go to the next call. One of my roommates and I got on our bicycles and scoured all of Williamsburg looking for her near her last known location. Thankfully she made it home soon after that — we got the call on our bikes near the Graham stop on the L, and we raced home. Thank god she made it back.

We’re all so small, and alone, and insignificant, when you really think about it. How can anyone be expected find a person in Brooklyn, really? It’s an impossible task. But it was really nice knowing that so many people came together to help try and find her.

I also want to bring your attention to the blog of another friend of mine, a current cancer fighter himself: Ezra of Fastboy Bicycles. A former dance instructor, resident of Harlem, maker of bicycles, and a really awesome guy. His writing is really inspiring, and well, it’s worth the read.

Tropical storm Hanna is estimated to hit New York tonight, meaning that it’s time to break out your heavy duty umbrella (i.e. not the $3 chinatown one) for this rare occasion that you’ll need it. Personally, I don’t intend to bike across the Williamsburg bridge, go swimming in the east river, or anything equally daring this evening, for fear of being washed away. Tonight might be a nice one to stay in, crack open a bottle of vodka, and cheers to the fact that you’ve got somewhere nice and cozy to dry off in — after we spend an estimated three hours searching Bushwick for tonic this afternoon, we certainly will enjoy the warmth and dryness.

I saw these flowers growing on the side of the road near Queensboro Plaza. We’d decided to walk along the 7 train’s route from Sunnyside to the Queensboro stop, a largely industrial area. Right next to a parking lot, we saw these plants, sprouting up like weeds.

Reading Lucky magazine (one of my guilty pleasures), I came across a blurb about a new boutique opening up in Soho: Eryn Brinie. A popular chain store in Korea, this US newcomer has cashmere knits and ethereal looking tops for $50 – $150 (not bad compared to most boutiques in the area). Intrigued by the clothes and the price, I looked at their website and fell in love with the artsy and ultra-femme style. I had to check it out.

I walked down to Soho after work, eager to see these garments in person . But when I got to the store, I sadly found that it is not yet open! Just a sign for it, saying August 2008 with a picture of more beautiful clothes.

Later I did some research online and found that the store apparently opens on August 21st. I may have to go there on opening day.

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